Bearing the heavier burden

Hey, another week, another blog. That is life, forever moving forward. But that said, I’m going to have a look backwards at something that happened in class the otherday. We were talking about the Pietists (a movement that started in Germany in the early 1700’s with the aim of getting people to really start reading their Bibles, and being concerned about sanctification not just justification. Also they kicked of the idea of small groups) and they had three questions they would always ask about scripture

            What does it teach us?

            What does it command us?

            What hope or promise for us does it contain?

Regardless of what you think of the validity of the questions they lead to some good discussion. We were having a look at Titus 2:11-12, and having a laugh about how it could so easily be interpreted as no fun (well, I wasn’t laughing. Because I’m not like that) Christianity. But what does it actually teach us? It looks at being self controlled so that we can live Godly lives. In the wider context of Titus (as Tim Blencowe showed us at engage) we do this to shine a light. But what I was really interested in was that was we started to talk about this we got on to the subject of movies, i.e., should Christians watch movies that are filled with ungodliness and worldly passions? We are not participating in those things but we are watching them. I’ve never had a problem with Christians watching any movies and to be honest I watch a lot of movies that are brimming over with ungodliness. What really moved me though was when of the other students said, “We need to carry the heavier burden. Maybe there is value in movies but if we are saying something about our faith by watching them maybe we shouldn’t watch any.” And it was that bit about carrying the burden that struck me. How often as Christians are we not willing to shoulder the heavy burden when we should? I will nearly always take the shortcut and defer to my liberalism, oh it’s okay to do that and that and that, whatever I want so long as I don’t hurt anyone. And too often I do what I think is right, and not necessarily what the Bible says is right. Which is wrong. So I was definitely challenged to bear the heavier burden. Now all I need to do is follow through…